


Depths Explored

by mishaleh



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Kidfic, but also serious fic, crackfic, with a side of
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-24
Updated: 2020-07-16
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:49:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 7,642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24885622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mishaleh/pseuds/mishaleh
Summary: The concept of this fanfiction is: Fawkes heals Harry and (in this fic) Ginny, and then flames out of the Chamber of Secrets. They, along with the sorting hat and sword get stuck in the Chamber for a summer together with Ron and Lockhart, once they clear the rocks between them, and the three kids develop a sibling-esque bond and explore the chamber (and figure out how to leave) over the course of the summer while avoiding Lockhart and occasionally listening to the sorting hat.
Kudos: 19





	1. How It Began

**Author's Note:**

> This fic begins after:
> 
> "I'm going to be expelled!" Ginny wept as Harry helped her awkwardly to her feet. "I've looked forward to coming to Hogwarts ever since B-Bill came and n-now I'll have to leave and -- w-what'll Mum and Dad say?" 
> 
> from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

She fell to the floor again, taking Harry down with her and wincing as they hit the blood-slick stone as the sword and sorting hat fell to the ground beside them. Harry shifted into a sitting position, and watched her, concerned.

“I don’t know if I’m ready to move yet,” Ginny admitted, pushing herself to lie down a little more comfortably.

Harry laughed, but it came out as more of a hacking cough. Fawkes began to sing, and Harry felt hopeful. When he finished his song, the phoenix cried on Ginny’s arm exactly where he had cried on Harry’s, although Ginny hadn’t been wounded. Fawkes glittered, and then disappeared in a brilliant flash. Suddenly, they were alone, and the chamber seemed darker and more frightening than it had even during the battle.

“I don’t think you’re going to be expelled, Ginny,” Harry offered. “Besides, they can’t expel you as long as we’re stuck down here.”

Ginny looked at her wet arm, and grimaced, rubbing Fawkes’ tears up and down it to dry her skin. She felt a little stronger, somehow. She wondered if she would be able to stand, now, but didn’t chance it. “What do you mean, stuck?”

Harry rubbed a spot near the top of his head. “Well, Fawkes could clearly get in and out of here, but we don’t have a way out, do we?”

Ginny hesitantly spoke. “I don’t know. I can’t remember any of the times I’ve been here. I don’t know how Tom got me out.” With this, she began to sob again in earnest. Harry sat next to her awkwardly. He had no idea what to say to a crying girl, much less Ron’s little sister, so he stayed quiet, figuring it couldn’t hurt things.

After a few minutes of steady crying, Ginny wrapped her arms around herself and then cried even harder. Harry still didn’t know what to say, but he thought his silence might be hurting things, so he wrapped his arms around himself, mimicking her posture, and looked over at her.

Ginny didn’t feel any better, but she was embarrassed about sobbing, so she tried her hardest to pull herself together, and eventually, she cried silently, and then not at all. “Do you reckon we’re trapped?” she asked, tremulously, wiping her eyes furiously.

“I dunno,” said Harry, looking down. “We can try to find a way out.”

“Yeah,” said Ginny.

They stayed there, worried, silent, and still for nearly an hour.

After what seemed like it must have been an eternity, Harry was the first to speak. “Are you – are you alright, Ginny?”

He cringed, sure that he had said the wrong thing. This made him especially nervous, because at the Dursleys and then especially this year at Hogwarts where everybody thought he was the heir of Slytherin, saying the wrong thing could get him punched or hexed. As a first year, hopefully she knew fewer hexes than him, but Harry couldn’t help but be a little intimidated, especially knowing that Ginny Weasley had killed all of Hagrid’s roosters, had petrified Hermione Granger, even while not herself.

Ginny gave him a watery smile, so Harry thought maybe he hadn’t messed up as badly as he thought. Or maybe she was being nice to him because of her, well, unfortunate crush. Either way, Harry couldn’t help but be a little grateful that she didn’t seem angry. Ginny didn’t speak immediately, though. She didn’t know what to say. A few seconds later, she opened her mouth, “Fine,” on the tip of her tongue, but something stopped her from saying it. She would have pushed through stubbornly with the lie regardless if she hadn’t been so shocked to experience her own internal dialogue for the first time in months. She was afraid to say that she wasn’t alright, though, so instead, she echoed Harry’s previous uncertainty.

“I dunno.”

Harry wasn’t very sure about how to reassure her, so he just said, “I think Ron’s that way,” pointing towards the way he came. Ginny began to shake, though, so he stopped speaking, and tried to give her a reassuring smile instead.

Exhausted, he went from sitting to lying down, and, eventually passed out.

Ginny sat, vigilant, afraid that Tom would be back, even though Harry had said it was over. She held herself and wished Bill was there, or even Luna. Bill would have known Tom was bad, would have protected her. She was sure of it. But Ginny Weasley was alone, and Harry Potter, who had protected her, was asleep. He had seemed scared, too, she mused, not like her storybooks at all. Somehow, this realization made her even more frightened, and while Harry napped, Ginny Weasley cried as quietly as she could. Eventually, she felt herself falling asleep too, and though she tried to recite her first-year spells in her head to stay awake, she too fell asleep.


	2. Basilisk Snackilisk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry and Ginny sleep, worry, and cook

Harry awoke with a start. He shuddered, cold, before he realized he wasn’t in his four-poster bed in Gryffindor tower. He wasn’t in the cupboard, or in Dudley’s second bedroom either. He blinked. Suddenly he remembered, he and Ron had to save Ginny. Panicked, he looked around.

He saw Ginny, still asleep. She seemed uninjured, and Harry was tired, so he closed his eyes and fell back asleep. A few hours passed while they and the sorting hat remained silent sleeping before Ginny opened her eyes, feeling a little rested, but hungry.

She pushed herself up on her elbows, testing whether she could sit, and she could. Her movement woke Harry, who blinked like last time. This time, though, he saw Ginny awake, so he worked to keep his eyes open.

By the time he was fully awake, Ginny was leaning back on her elbows with her legs crossed out in front of her with a determined expression. She was breathing heavily. Harry thought she might be working up the energy to stand. He rolled onto his stomach, and pushed himself up on his elbows and knees, sharp against the cold stone. He grimaced, but he made it to his feet. Harry was nervous about offering to help Ginny up because the last time he did, she fell, and he didn’t want to make her fall again. Ginny looked up at him, and grunted, pushing up on her elbows, but still unable to get up.

“Sorry,” Ginny said, breathless. “You can go on ahead.”

Harry was unwilling to leave her, though, when she couldn’t move and could barely breathe from exertion. If Ron had been there, maybe he would have asked Ron to watch over her while he checked out the spaces around them, or stayed with her while Ron looked ahead, but the two of them were alone. Even though Tom and the basilisk were gone, she was vulnerable because she couldn’t stand yet. Harry didn’t know what else was in the chamber and he wasn’t sure it was safe. He kicked himself for falling asleep in a space like that.

“Maybe in a bit,” Harry said. “Let’s stick together for now.”

“Alright,” Ginny said quietly.

They sat, quietly. Harry wanted to assure her but felt like the words were empty even as he said them.

“It’s going to be alright, Ginny.”

He didn’t believe himself. He worried that they’d be stuck there, and that there were more dangers there than they knew. He was worried about the cave-in, and Ron past it saddled with Lockhart, but he felt like sinking his head into his hands when he thought about them, so for the moment, he just worried about himself and Ginny.

“Thanks,” Ginny said.

She didn’t look as if she believed him, either, but at least she didn’t seem angry at him. If they were going to be stuck together, Harry wanted to get along. He almost missed the days when his biggest worries were that she’d be nervous around him and stick her hand in the butter dish again, instead of worrying that she was hurt or that they’d be stuck and she would hate him or that Voldemort would target her too now. Harry’s chest tightened at the last thought. Voldemort had already come for Harry. Wasn’t that enough?

Remembering something Hermione said about magic being based on intent, Harry held his wand and pointed it at the floor next to him, imagining with all his heart that there was a pillow, but nothing appeared. He felt the floor and it seemed a bit softer, though.

“Sorry, was trying to make a pillow, to help, well, er, to help you sit up again. The floor seems a little softer if you want to try.”

“I’ll be up in a few minutes, I think,” Ginny said. “But thank you.”

Ginny’s stomach whined. They hadn’t eaten for hours at this point, although several of those hours had been spent sleeping, although it hadn’t occurred to Harry until he heard the whine. Harry was used to going without food, with his last summer spent behind bars and a cat-flap until he reached the Weasleys and growing up underfed in the cupboard. He knew he’d last a day or two, at least, himself, but he realized that he was hungry too. He looked at her, concerned.

“Will you be alright? I don’t know if we’ve got any food down here.”

“Do you think – do you – do you think? Do you think we can eat the snake?” Ginny asked.

“I don’t know,” said Harry. “If we cook it, I reckon.”

“But how?”

Harry thought for a moment. “Incendio would work for a fire, but where?” 

“You’ve got a sword. Maybe on there?” Ginny suggested.

Harry realized it would work. “Alright. I’m just going to cut away some of the basilisk for us to eat.”

Ginny shut her eyes, and Harry sliced out some of the basilisk’s flesh from behind the neck, skewering it on the sword so it would stay. He found it hard to lift the sword though, so he pulled it out from his slice and called out “wingardium leviosa.” It began to levitate, and, encouraged, he continued. “Can you cast incendio on it, Ginny? Sorry, I don’t think it was working to use the sword.”

Ginny raised her wand shakily, pointing it at the bit of basilisk. “Incendio.”

The basilisk chunk was on fire, and she held the fire for a few minutes. “It’s done, I reckon.”

“Yeah,” she said. She lost concentration and the flame went out before she could put it out.

Harry wasn’t sure how to cut the meat until he remembered diffindo from charms class. He found a clean space on the floor (well, as clean as he could find), and cast diffindo repeatedly until the basilisk was in bite sized chunks.

“Alright, Ginny,” he began, with a bit of a smile. “Here’s our basilisk snackilisk.”


	3. Repast and Reunite

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry and Ginny eat and then they find Ron.

Neither Harry nor Ginny seemed to want to take the first bite, but after a few minutes of looking at the cooked meat, they tried it together. Harry was surprised – the meat was tasty, it tasted almost like a lamb roast, but a bit tougher. Harry heard that people said unfamiliar meats tasted just like chicken, but this didn’t – and he was glad, because the Dursleys liked their chicken overcooked and he had enough of chicken that was alright at Hogwarts and the Weasleys. At least they would have something new to eat as their only known food source, rather than something pedestrian that they were used to and had no way to cook very well.

The flame had charred the outside of the meat, but the inside was, while cooked, tender and rare. It was a little dry, but Harry thought that might just be from the charring. Ginny seemed to enjoy eating it too, if that was possible. She chewed the meat slowly with a small smile, but her eyes were vacant. Harry desperately hoped she didn’t start crying again, and vastly preferred this. They glanced at one another every so often, but mostly ate.

Harry was certain the basilisk meat would have tasted better if they had cooked it in a pan or even on a skewer over a flame instead of setting the meat directly on fire. For a tool-free cook, it was pretty good, though, especially after fighting a battle with the creature he was eating. Harry would take what they could get, when he didn’t have pots or pans to work with, and when they were limited to first year and second year spells, Ginny even more limited than Harry.

Soon, they ran out of cooked meat, and Harry felt full. Ginny reached for another piece, and he worried that she was still hungry.

“Should we make more?” he asked.

She cocked her head to the side, as if she hadn’t realized that she had eaten yet, or that she had run out of food.

“No, I suppose not. I think I’m full.”

She wasn’t full, but she couldn’t really figure out how she felt, and her internal dialogue was all but gone, with rare exception. She didn’t know or understand what she was feeling. Still she thought it best to not make him cook more when she wasn’t even sure if she wanted it and when she couldn’t really experience eating it even if he did make it. Also, they weren’t sure of their theory that the meat of the basilisk was safe to eat when cooked – best to wait a while and see if they fell ill, or if they were fine.

Harry was hesitant to mention Ron again, but he thought seeing her brother might help Ginny, and Ron didn’t have a reason to be upset with them now, but if he thought they were avoiding him and suffered too long on an empty stomach, he suspected their reception might not be so welcoming. He tried not to think about Lockhart, but he knew he would have to explain Lockhart too. He decided to try again.

“Erm, Ginny, Ron’s probably pretty worried about you by now. I think he should be back that way, clearing some rocks, since there was a cave in.”

She didn’t seem upset like last time, so Harry figured it was safe to keep explaining. “Oh, and the prat Lockhart is with him, but he accidentally blasted himself with Ron’s wand.”

Ginny nodded slowly.

“Let’s try to get back to him. Maybe we can help with the rocks. But let’s not leave this stuff behind.”

Harry grasped the sword in one hand and his wand in the other. Ginny had to try a few times before she could stand, but she made it up and then put the sorting hat on her head and carrying her wand in one hand, holding the other to her hip. It seemed like it hurt her to stand. They walked nearly to the other side of the room before Ginny tripped on slick blood, Harry wasn’t sure whose. She caught herself before she fell, but she still stopped walking. She stood without moving for a minute. She started to walk, and then she winced and stopped again.

“Lean on my shoulder, maybe?” suggested Harry. He didn’t have a spare arm to hold her up with because he was holding up weapons to try and protect them both, but he figured he might stabilize her a bit. Ginny put her arm on his shoulder, putting a good bit of her weight on him, and they slowly made it back to the cave-in where they found a frantic Ron, and a boisterous Lockhart.

When Ron saw them, he rushed through the space he had cleared in the rocky rubble. Seeing this, Harry dropped the sword away from them, but held onto the wand. He was just in time, because Ginny crushed them both in a hug as soon as Ron got to them.


	4. Finding Ron

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry and Ginny find Ron.

When Ginny released Harry and Ron, she wiped tears from her eyes. A look passed silently between Harry and Ron; they simultaneously decided not to notice this for their benefit and for hers. As awkward as Harry was with crying girls, especially Ron’s little sister, Ron was doubly confused.

Growing up with six brothers, Ginny wasn’t much of a crier. She was a fierce fighter and prankster, but she was far likelier to produce fake tears to frame the twins than to cry for real. For little Ginny Weasley, crying meant six brothers laughing at her all at once. Well, really it would have meant only five brothers laughing; Bill wouldn’t have laughed, even when they were little. As much as Bill wouldn’t have laughed at her, though, he wasn’t always around. Even when Bill wasn’t at Hogwarts, he either wouldn’t or couldn’t stop Fred and George from laughing. Percy didn’t laugh like the twins, but he gave her this disapproving look, as though how dare she be a toddler and cry when she skinned her knee. Charlie was just, er, Charlie. Which is to say, Charlie would laugh, but not because he was laughing at Ginny. Charlie ended up laughing because he tried to make a joke to cheer her up, but then laughed at his own joke. Then, well, Ginny still felt the same as if she’d been laughed at. Sure, she cried as a baby, but by the time Ginny was speaking and listening, when another child would have cried, Ginny would put her tiny hands on her hips and yell just like her mother, or, especially as she grew older, clench her fists and plan her revenge.

But being stung by a bee and bitten by gnomes and having her hair turned Slytherin green wasn’t nearly as terrifying as being possessed by Tom Riddle and being forced to hurt your friends and lose hours upon hours of time. Especially since her anti-crying responses were often generated by the inner voice that Tom Riddle had all but obliterated, Ginny Weasley couldn’t depend on her brilliant anger or intense revenge planning here. It wasn’t as if she could get revenge on a dead diary, anyways.

Ginny Weasley cried, and her own brother was as much at a loss as Harry. Ron glanced anywhere but at his sister, hoping she would stop crying, just wishing she would start yelling or punching. Or bat bogeying – although maybe not that one. Ever since Bill taught her that spell with his wand and even more so after she stole their mother’s wand for “extra practice” that often moonlit as revenge, Ginny was truly terrifying with the hex.

Harry didn’t have personal experience with Ginny’s bat bogey hex, but he still was a little afraid of her, of how she might react. Conscious of this, he was at least grateful that Lockhart wasn’t within immediate sight, but he could hear someone walking around not too far from the cleared rocks. He knew the professor couldn’t be too far, and surely finding him would only make things worse. Harry was relieved to see that Ron was holding his wand himself – he didn’t want to know how much damage the blasted professor would do if he’d got hold of it.

Ron yawned, and Harry glanced towards him and saw he was covered in sweat, grime, and bits of rocks. He looked ready to collapse. Ron looked down.

“You’re alright, Ginny?” he asked, sizing her up as if to confirm it for himself.

“I dunno,” Ginny replied.

Harry didn’t know either. Ginny had nearly had her soul removed, she was still struggling to walk, and she winced with pain every so often. Harry also remembered her pale face and blank expression while they ate. He didn’t know what it meant, but Harry was almost certain that wasn’t what she usually looked like during meals. Thankfully, after eating, she had a bit more color in her cheeks, otherwise Ron surely would have worried even more. All of this was only what Harry had noticed so far – Ginny was almost certainly not fine, he concluded. He and Ron would have to help her.

“Alright,” Ron said. “You’ll be alright. I’ll – we’ll help.” He looked to Harry for confirmation.

Harry nodded. “Course I will.”

Ginny didn’t want to endure more questioning from Ron, so instead she turned the questions on him. “What’ve you and the – the professor been up to out here?”

Ron looked pleased with himself, if tired. It was then that Harry remembered, with some gratitude, that Ron had a tendency to go on rather at length about his own heroic accomplishments and occasionally embellish them. He was almost tempted to zone out as Ron expounded upon his works, but Harry really was curious, and he was worried, so he didn’t.


	5. Ginny Weasley and the Hogwarts Sorting Hat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Sorting Hat Comforts Ginny Weasley.

While Harry made sure to pay attention to Ron’s explanation of how he had cleared the rocks and monitored Lockhart, the sorting hat kept Ginny company.

Even as she was ready to plummet again to the cold ground, Ginny was still standing and wearing the Hogwarts Sorting Hat on her head. The hat knew all of Ginny’s fears, could hear them as they hit her – they were the only thoughts currently occupying her mind aside from the awful memories they released in her. To the hat, she was practically screaming these anxieties.

The hat began to shush Ginny in her mind like no one had shushed her since she was a baby. Never before had the Hogwarts Sorting Hat been in a position to calm a crying child, but the hat had sorted thousands of young wixen since its creation. It had seen many of them soothed by a parent, a sibling, a friend, a stranger. The hat was brimming with memories of crying children being reassured, of children hugging their tearful friends, and unfortunately, too, of some children, like Ginny, crying without comfort.

Worse yet, the hat knew that some children hurt others and watched them be cared for, sometimes with remorse and sometimes bitterly and angrily. If the hat wasn’t so concerned with staying still on Ginny’s head, talking with her without gathering the boys’ attention, it would have shuddered. Tom Riddle was one of those children who was always remorseless and could only be angry when another child found solace in support.

And unlike cruel Riddle, who searched only for devastating knowledge, things that could hurt, the hat had learned kindness from the memories of others. The hat shushed Ginny again. It knew that despite Harry’s earlier words, Ginny was still terrified of being expelled, so it began to speak in her mind.

“You’re brave, lass,” the hat told Ginny. “Gryffindor suits you. You have nothing to fear from the headmaster when he returns. You just take care of yourself and let those two hooligans worry about the headmaster. They didn’t have a diary make them break all those rules.”

If Ginny wasn’t so terrified, she would have giggled, but because she was so afraid, she just became even more scared instead. Harry’s previous fear about trying to say something to help her had happened, but to the sorting hat instead. The hat had tried to help, but instead gave her a new fear. Now, she was worried that her brother and Harry would be expelled, all for trying to help her, and that she would go unpunished while they suffered for her foolishness. Blimey, Ginny had petrified their best friend. 

The hat was alarmed. “No, Miss Weasley. I was joking about the boys being expelled. Their rule-breaking was, if I might say, necessary here. None of you will be punished. Ms. Weasley, I daresay, once you return to the school, you will all be rewarded for fighting Tom Riddle. He murdered Mr. Potter’s parents, you know, and I believe the Hogwarts staff were quite fond of them.”

The hat hadn’t meant to reveal this new information, but it wasn’t a student’s secret, so the protective enchantments didn’t prevent the hat from sharing the information. It wasn’t sure whether to regret sharing, though – the children and the headmasters alike seemed to share in the benefits of knowing about the things that hurt them. The more they learned about things and people who harmed them, the more they were empowered and able to find direction to fight and move forward.

Yes, it would be scary for Ginny to know that it was Voldemort who had possessed her that year, who had nearly absorbed her soul like some kind of twisted dementor amoeba. Knowing he had targeted her, though, would also help her understand that she had fought impossible odds – that it wasn’t her fault that the school was attacked, even though she had been forced to do the violence upon it. She would realize, even if not right away, that Tom Riddle, and ultimately Salazar Slytherin, were at fault. Salazar Slytherin had built this chamber and created a monster to help him orchestrate ethnic cleansing against muggle-born students, and Tom Riddle had tried to carry out this twisted legacy of his, first as a teenager and again in the preserved diary. He would betray Ginny’s trust and wield her as both shield and weapon. And ultimately, she, along with Harry and Ron would fight him, and with this teamwork, they had stopped him.

Ginny didn’t immediately understand the hat’s words about Harry’s parents, though, or their implications about Riddle’s identity. She was just glad that the boys would be in trouble, and her immediate worry was about how they would make it out of the chamber without Fawkes, who had flamed in and must have known the way out. She worried again that they would be trapped.

“You will make it out, Miss Weasley. You are three bright young students and you have me.”

Ginny doubted the hat's confidence in their abilities, but soon was overtaken with shock. She shuddered as she realized exactly whose diary she’d been writing in that year. Tom Riddle must have been, had to be You-Know-Who.


	6. Uniformity and Darkness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ron and Harry catch up, and they come up with the beginnings of a plan.

Once Ron had caught Harry up on the events that had taken place behind the cave-in and Ginny was firmly ensconced in her conversation with the Hogwarts Sorting Hat, Harry and Ron began to discuss an issue that Harry and Ginny had already discussed, but not resolved – namely, that they were likely trapped.

Harry frowned. “We – we didn’t exactly look for a passage out of the room the – the basilisk was in. We wanted to find you first, we were worried. Maybe there’s a way out from there.”

Ron shrugged. “I dunno. I wasn’t there, obviously. Did you see anything that looked like a door or a snake while you were in there?”

Harry responded impulsively and more than a bit sarcastically.

“Well, I saw a snake, Ron. Big, about twenty meters long. Slimy. No, Ron, I didn’t see a door or anything that looked like a snake entrance.”

He continued, repeating their sentiments from the first time that they had gone into the forbidden corridor, in their first year, where they had worried a bit more about three biting heads than what Hagrid’s Cerberus Fluffy was standing on.

“I was a bit more focused on the great bloody snake with the deadly head – eyes that can kill, you know, fangs that poison you to death?”

But then he caught himself and breathed. He didn’t want to be a berk to Ron – they were all trapped, and they were all trying. And especially, he worried that if he was rude to Ron, it would hurt Ginny, who seemed the most vulnerable of them all.

“I don’t know, Ron. Maybe we can go back later, and check. There was a well, a great big ugly statue of Slytherin that Riddle opened and then the basilisk came out of it. Maybe there’s a way out through there. Opening had to be pretty big, to fit a huge snake. And the password stinks.”

“The password?” Ron asked, incredulous. “The password is what you’re worried about? I’d be more worried that it’d be dangerous to go through the passage, I reckon. Don’t know what was back there with the basilisk.”

“True,” Harry responded sheepishly. “But the password, well, it’s ‘speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts four.”

“Bloke didn’t think too much of himself, did he?”

Harry laughed. “Definitely not.”

“Well, that sounds like an option?” Ron mused. “Or maybe there’s another hidden snake door out here. You can pretend they’re moving, right, if you see one?”

“Yeah.”

“Should we check over here or in there first, then?”

“Dunno,” said Harry. “Maybe we should check here first? I mean, since it’s closer to the school, maybe it’s safer. And this way, we don’t have to go there and then come back here again, since we’re starting where we are.”

“Fair enough,” said Ron. “Wish my wand wasn’t busted,” he added morosely. “Three wands would be better than two, for sure.”

Harry nodded. “Wish we’d taken the fool Lockhart’s wand. Could have used it. But we’ll make do.”

Ron agreed, “We will.”

Harry realized suddenly that all three of them were shivering. The chamber of secrets was cold and uninviting, and they didn’t know how to get out. He began to scan the walls and floors, looking for a snake emblem anywhere. In the distance, Harry heard Lockhart puttering around but he really didn’t want to see their awful professor ever again. They shouldn’t explore the area near him anytime soon. Harry just hoped he would stay away.

For a while, they looked in silence. Harry didn’t see any snakes, or anything that looked out of place from the distance he was at, though, so he began to walk around. Even up closer, the chamber’s grey stone walls and floors nearly all looked uniform in this room, except for their varying degradation from age and abuse. While the rest of Hogwarts castle had a caretaker, Harry doubted that anyone had taken care of Slytherin’s chamber at least since Tom Riddle had been a student – and even then, Riddle didn’t seem like the type to care about cleanliness or perfection in this – he likely would have felt that the flaws of time were part of this place’s magic, of its darkness. Harry felt this way too, but unlike his imagined Riddle, he didn’t think that was something to appreciate. It was likely, in fact, that nobody had really taken care of this space in nearly a thousand years. Because of this, Harry was both unsure that they’d find anything helpful and hopeful that they would – that someone else hadn’t found it first.

By the time Harry and Ron had examined the entire room twice, neither had found anything. Harry could hear that Ron’s stomach was beginning to growl, and he knew that was a problem they could solve, if Ron wasn’t too squeamish.


	7. Room of Snake(s)?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry, Ron, and Ginny go back into the inner chamber to look for more rooms or a way out.

Since Harry and Ron hadn’t found anything in the antechamber, Harry decided to suggest that they go forward into the chamber with the basilisk’s corpse to see what else was in there. Harry hoped there would be another room, with answers or with food. If anything, at least there was the basilisk to feed them.

“Let’s check the other room,” suggested Harry.

“The one with the ‘great bloody snake’ in it? Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Ron asked doubtfully.

“Mate, we’ve already had a look in here. Neither of us got a good look in there before. There might be another room in there, I reckon.” 

“Alright,” said Ron, who was beginning to get grumpy. “Guess we’d better get on then.”

Harry knew they would need to get Ginny’s attention so they could proceed.

“Alright then, but not just us. We’d better bother Ginny and see if she’s ready to go back in.”

Ginny startled when Harry said her name, but he wasn’t sure she knew what they’d said. Before he could explain, Ron spoke.

“Gin – let’s check out the other room?”

She shuddered. Harry thought maybe she was still afraid of the basilisk. Harry still felt the echoes of Riddle’s taunts, himself. But then Ginny straightened up a bit and nodded. “Alright, then. What are we looking for?”

Harry almost interjected before Ron could respond, but he stopped himself. He thought that maybe Ginny would do better hearing from her own brother. Besides, the less he talked, Harry figured, the fewer chances he had of messing up and making her mad, or worse, making her cry.

Ron spoke up. “There’s no other rooms attached to this one we found. You don’t remember any, do you?”

Ginny started sobbing again, and Harry saw that she was shaking nearly as badly as she had been at her worst. He wished more than anything that they weren’t in a cold, unforgiving stone chamber, and that Ginny could be in the hospital wing with a warm mug of cocoa, or in her bed in the girl’s dormitory in Gryffindor tower, even if he and Ron were still stuck in here. But he didn’t even have any idea how they could do that, or how to help Ginny.

Finally, she gasped. “I don’t remember anything, Ron. I don’t remember most of this year. Tom – Tom made sure I didn’t remember.”

This frightened Harry even more than the knowledge she had been controlled by the diary. Somehow, knowing that she didn’t even remember what she had been forced to do, or even where she had been felt much worse. They might never even know all the things Ginny Weasley had been forced to do, might never find all the parts of the chamber where she’d been, might never find a way out. He shook his head. He didn’t want to think like that.

“It’ll be alright, Ginny. We’ll find it again, even if you’ve been places.”

Ginny nodded, still crying and shivering. “Alright. Let’s go in.”

Harry and Ron each supported one of Ginny’s arms so that she was braced on both sides. Together, they went back into the chamber with the basilisk. As they entered, Ron nearly lost his footing as the snake came into view.

“Blimey,” he exclaimed. He sniffed. “It smells like there’s been fire in here.”

He shot Ginny a concerned glance, as if to confirm she hadn’t been set on fire, but she seemed unburned, thankfully.

Harry could still smell the fire from earlier, the fire that had fed them charred basilisk flesh. Harry wrinkled his nose and then exchanged a wry glance with Ginny, before looking at the snake.

As realization of what had been burning dawned on Ron, his stomach moaned again as a look of disgust settled on his face. Harry could see Ron’s conflict on his face – clearly having realized that they cooked basilisk and likely ate it. Next, Ron shrugged, seeing that they were clearly still alive, so it must have been safe to eat it. Harry knew Ron hadn’t eaten for a long time, much longer than it had been for Harry and Ginny, and he must have been very hungry at this point. Ron’s stomach growled and a wistful expression appeared with it next. Ginny was giggling behind her hand, and Harry was trying very hard not to laugh at his mate for being so clearly torn.

Ron didn’t ask about eating the basilisk, though, and instead pushed to find another room, anything. “Are there any carvings of snakes or anything here?”

Before waiting for a response, he left Harry to support Ginny where the two of them were standing and began to comb the perimeter of the room. Besides the statue of Slytherin from which the snake had emerged, Ron didn’t see anything of interest along the walls or floors on the sides of the room until he had walked all the way around the perimeter twice, when he saw a small snake carving.


	8. Harry and the Sorting Hat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The kids try to get into the other room, eat dinner, and then they go to sleep. Harry has a heart to heart with the sorting hat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to those who have read this story, left kudos, and subscribed! I am more excited about this story as I keep writing it, and I hope you all are enjoying it.

“I’ve found something,” Ron called out.

“Can you sit, Ginny?” Harry asked, concerned. He knew she wasn’t well enough to stand on her own at the moment. 

Ginny rolled her shoulders and then nodded. Harry helped lower her to the ground. “Are you alright like this?” 

Ginny nodded, but her face was screwed up like she was trying hard to sit. Mindful that she might need help soon, Harry rushed over to Ron. He didn’t see anything on the wall but stone, even as he got closer. Bewildered, Harry turned to Ron. 

“Where is it, Ron? I don’t see it.” 

“Right there,” Ron pointed to a spot on the wall that looked just as grey and stony as the rest. “I didn’t find it my first time walking round, but it’s right there.” 

Harry squinted. “I still don’t see it.” 

“Maybe you have to walk around twice to see it, like Ron did?” Ginny wondered.

“I’ll try it. Can’t hurt.”

Harry walked around the room slowly twice, and as he approached on his second time walking around the room, he finally saw the snake carving in the stone that Ron had seen earlier. 

“Wicked,” he said. “I can see it now. Thanks, Ron.” 

Ron grinned. “Wonder where it goes.” 

“Open,” Harry said in English. 

Ron shook his head.”

“Open,” he tried again.

“Still English, mate.” 

Harry tried again to envision that the snake was moving.

“Open,” Harry said again, but this time, it was a hiss. He had spoken parseltongue. Nothing happened, though. The snake was still just a carving. Frustrated, Harry began to repeat himself, in parseltongue, but with no greater success. 

“Open, open, open, open, open.”

He was so frustrated that the last one came out in English, and he still had no idea how to get in. Suddenly, Harry remembered that the password for the bust of Slytherin had been different. “Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts four”, he incanted, once he was certain that the image of the snake moving was firm in his mind. He really didn’t want to say it in English; that would be embarrassing. Thankfully, Ron and Ginny showed no recognition, so it must have been parseltongue, but it also didn’t accomplish anything. 

Harry tried a few other passwords: Salazar, Slytherin, Hogwarts, and even Voldemort, just in case Tom Riddle had made or changed that password, but he did so to no effect. Frustrated, he slumped against the wall. 

“Let’s at least mark where it is. I have no idea what the password is.” 

Harry looked around, but he didn’t really want to leave the sword there, and he didn’t know what else to use. The sorting hat, he thought, maybe? He worried that maybe they’d need to talk to the hat, or that the hat might be offended.

Luckily, Ginny intervened. “Use your Gryffindor tie.” 

Harry loosened his Gryffindor tie, and put it on the floor near the snake marking. Ron’s stomach growled, and Ron grimaced at Harry. 

“Did – did you eat some of the basilisk?” 

“Yeah, it’s safe, I reckon.” Harry walked over towards the snake and pointed his wand near where he had already cut away some of the flesh. 

“Diffindo. Diffindo.” 

Part of the meat began to come away. Ginny levitated the part that had been cut away.

“Wingardium leviosa.” 

Harry cast incendio and the meat began to flame, just like the last time. When they were finished cooking, Ginny was the one to try and cast the severing charm. She successfully cut the meat on her second try, and Ron grabbed some, nervous, and chewed it, looking relieved, as if he had expected it to taste absolutely disgusting. Harry knew already that it wasn’t bad. Harry and Ginny took smaller portions since they had already eaten, and the three of them ate in silence.

Finally, when they were all full, exhaustion fell on the three simultaneously and they curled up in a corner opposite the basilisk’s corpse and fell asleep.

Harry was the first of them to wake. The chamber was dark, but it was always dark. He noticed that both he and Ginny had managed to shift during the night and were using Ron’s shoulders and stomach as a pillow. Harry got up quietly, having had years of practice doing so in his cupboard as a young child, put on his glasses, and began to think. It wasn’t long before his eyes fell on the sorting hat, which tipped a bit towards him, and he put on the hat. 

“Harry Potter,” the hat began to speak in Harry’s mind. “Can you not see what Ginny Weasley needs?”

“What?” Harry thought.

“What she needs, Harry Potter - can you not see it?” 

“I dunno,” thought Harry.

“What did you crave those long years in your cupboard?”

“A… a mum and dad?” 

“Ms. Weasley has those. What can you provide that she needs and doesn’t have at the moment?” 

“A… a hug?” 

“Yes, Harry Potter. Ms. Weasley could use a hug and reassurance when you see her next, and the next time you see her cry.”

“Al – alright,” Harry thought-stumbled. “I’ll do that.” He knew Ron wouldn’t think of it; he hadn’t already.

“Thank you, Harry Potter. Your friends are beginning to wake.”


	9. Into the Room

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The key to the room.

When Ginny woke up, Ron was still snoring. She crinkled her nose at the sound. A year’s reprieve must have spoiled her. Here, the snores were even louder with them in the same room than it was growing up at the Burrow. They had fallen asleep in same room a few times as very young children, but Ron’s snores hadn’t been as loud then.

Like Harry, Ginny had years of practice maneuvering quietly while others were sleeping. Since she was six years old, Ginny Weasley had snuck out in the middle of the night to ride her brothers’ brooms and had done so for all this time without disturbing any of them, none of them the wiser. Despite all this, she wasn’t skilled at moving while injured. Molly Weasley was extremely talented at healing for someone who hadn’t at least apprenticed at St. Mungos. With Fred and George as her children, Arthur as her husband, and her own brothers, she had plenty of experience healing all kinds of odd injuries. If Ginny was hurt, she went to her mother, and her mother fixed it. Ginny was also much better at lying than any of her brothers, so she had no reason to fear punishment if she’d been hurt doing something she ought not have done. Any such injury would get a new back-story or, if that failed, she would add a tearful “I’m not even sure when it happened. I just noticed it and it hurts, Mum.”

Unused to staying injured, Ginny carelessly sat up and began to move towards Harry. She began to crumple as she got up and then lost her footing completely once she was upright, if you could call it that, for the half second that she had been. Even though Harry rushed over and caught her before she completely fell upon stone, Ginny’s stumbling woke Ron. Harry and Ginny were alert at this point, but Ron was groggy and yawned loudly.

Apparently still mid-dream, Ron yelled, “Wazzat? The Cannons won the Quidditch World Cup! And they’ve hired me as their starting keeper next year!”

Ron pumped his fist in celebration, but when his arm came down, on the cold stone floor, he startled, and Harry could see that he had just realized something wasn’t right. Ron blinked at Harry and Ginny, and then a concerned expression came over him, and he rushed over to his sister and best friend.

It took efforts from both Harry and a very groggy Ron to help Ginny sit up against a wall. She leaned her weight against it, and the boys set to lighting the space with the spell lumos, wishing that they had Hermione’s bluebell flames.

Once Ginny was securely seated, Harry circled the room twice and came to the place where his Gryffindor tie, along with the now visible snake, indicated another room, or at least _something_. He missed Hermione’s knack for solving puzzles and for knowing things, she would know what to try, what spells would help. Suddenly, he remembered when she had tapped her wand to Tom Riddle’s diary and turned his wand on the snake and cast.

“Revelio.”

The snake began to glow, but Harry didn’t know what this meant, and he tapped his wand to it again.

“Reveal your secrets.”

A network like a Celtic knot began to form around the snake. Harry repeated the latter, but this time in Parseltongue, and then he could see the faint outline of a room lined with bookcases piled high with slipshod books shoved in every bit of space available and cauldrons and filled with a desk and chairs that seemed even more straight-backed and uncomfortable than the ones in Professor McGonagall’s classroom. Thanks, Hermione, he thought. He repeated both of the spells again, in Parseltongue, and the outline became clearer, and suddenly Harry saw an outline of a key next to the snake.

He tapped it with his wand and, looking at the snake and imagining it was moving, he continued in Parseltongue. “Reveal your secrets,” he said. The faint outline of a door appeared in the stone. Open,” Harry continued, tapping the key again.

And this time, the door opened, and Ron and Ginny’s jaws dropped simultaneously behind him. Harry grinned, satisfied, and turned to them, but not before Ron had regained his composure.

“Blimey.”

Ginny fell over in her attempt to peer into the room, and Harry rushed to help her up.

“Do you reckon one of those chairs would do you better than the floor?”

Still shocked at the new room, Ginny nodded, and Harry helped her to her feet and then to a chair in the room they’d found. Gathering his wits, Ron followed, and his eyes tracked the whole room as he slumped into the chair next to Ginny’s.


End file.
